When Joe Jacobi lost the gold medal he won at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics for the slalom C-2 event in canoe racing, he reported it to the authorities and probably didn’t think it would be possible to recover.

So when a 6-year-old girl in Atlanta, Georgia, found it along the street among some trash in the road, Jacobi was so excited that he personally drove from Tennessee to thank her and retrieve it.

Jacobi reported that the medal was stolen from his car when he had placed it in a backpack.

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It wasn’t easy for the young Chloe Smith to understand the relevance or importance of giving up what she found, but relatives said that when she had a chance to speak with Jacobi on the phone she changed her mind.

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Jacobi was so happy to have the medal returned that not only did he personally travel to see Chloe and thank her in person, but he gave her a $500 reward and some Olympic memorabilia as well.

Jacobi has accomplished a lot in his athletic and business careers: winning the gold medal in 1992, qualifying for the 2004 Olympics and coming in sixth place, becoming the CEO of USA Canoe/Kayak, and serving as an analyst for NBC Sports during the 2008 Summer Olympics.

However, regaining his stolen medal because of the kindness of strangers from another state who found it in a trash pile could be statistically the most unlikely scenario that he’s come across.